The correspondence between Leibniz and Samuel Clarke was the most influential philosophical exchange of the eighteenth century, and indeed one of the most significant such exchanges in the history of philosophy. Carried out in 1715 and 1716, the debate focused on the clash between Newtonian and Leibnizian world systems, involving disputes in physics, theology, and metaphysics. The letters ranged over an extraordinary array of topics, including divine immensity and eternity, the relation of God to the world, free will, gravitation, the existence of atoms and the void, and the size of the...

A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God was published in 1705 and is one of the most famous attempts at proving the existence of God. It is a very clear exposition of the Cosmological Argument, which seeks to show that the existence of the world necessarily entails that of its maker. This volume presents it together with some important supplementary texts, and with a historical introduction that examines Clarke's views and relates them to the Newtonian circle of which he was the most gifted and influential representative.